System, method, and computer program product for centralized management of an infiniband distributed system area network

Abstract

A method, system, and product in a data processing system are disclosed for providing centralized management of a InfiniBand distributed system-area network that includes multiple end nodes. A manager application is established in one of the end nodes. An agent application is established in one or more end nodes. Each agent application is independent from the manager application. The manager application maintains a current list of active agent applications and uses the list to manage the agent applications in the end nodes.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Technical Field [0002] The present invention relates generally to the field of computer systems and more specifically to a system, method, and computer program product for centrally managing InfiniBand distributed system area network end nodes. [0003] 2. Description of Related Art [0004] Historically, increasing compute requirements were addressed by computer manufactures by designing faster uni-processor systems. As such offerings became cost prohibitive and could not react to the time-to-market requirements, multiple processors were tightly coupled together to create symmetric multi-processor (SMP) systems. Again, driven by higher compute requirements, multiple single or multi-processors were connected together to create a cluster. Clusters of multiple systems provide increased compute capability. However, these clusters often deploy proprietary interconnects to decrease latency and are difficult to manage. [0005] A new industry standard archi...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] A method, system, and product in a data processing system are disclosed for providing centralized management of an InfiniBand distributed system-area network that includes multiple end nodes. At least one manager application is established in one of the end nodes. An agent application is established in one or more end nodes. Each agent application is independent from the manager application. Each manager application registers its presence in the fabric by using InfiniBand Architected Service Records in the System Administrator (SA) by creating a Service Record in the subnet administrator's database. The agent applications, instead of registering with the subnet administrator, register themselves with one or more manager applications. The manager application maintains a current list of active agent applications and uses the list to manage the agent applications in the end nodes. Agents query the SA to discover any new managers and then register themselves directly with these managers.

Problems solved by technology

As such offerings became cost prohibitive and could not react to the time-to-market requirements, multiple processors were tightly coupled together to create symmetric multi-processor (SMP) systems.

However, these clusters often deploy proprietary interconnects to decrease latency and are difficult to manage.

Images